Roses and Thorns
by LeahLucy
Summary: Travis and Connor Stoll are known for breaking the rules, and they break a huge one during the Titan war. But are they actually compassionate, despite what Katie had thought? Rated T to be safe. R&R, please!


Those Stoll brothers can ruin just about anything. Don't let them tell you otherwise, because they would love to. I'd always thought that they just didn't have the mental capacity to not be utterly annoying.

Once, when Travis was trying to look cool in front of the camp counsellors at one of our meetings, he stood on the ping pong table. That was fairly normal for him, except that he decided to pound his chest like a gorilla. He ended up stepping off the end by accident. The entire table came crashing down on him, ping pong balls and all. Mr. D was less than impressed. I'm pretty sure he almost turned Travis into a shrub.

Although I have to admit, Travis made some pretty good jokes about it afterwards.

Anyway, it never occurred to me that they might have actual substance. They could actually be good people. Travis and his brother Connor were the last people that I wanted to see in the middle on the Titan war, but I soon learned that they might not be so terrible after all.

* * *

><p>The battle was nearing, and everyone was worried out of their minds, naturally. My cabin especially. Demeter is not known for partaking in battles. When we were driving away from Camp Half-Blood into the city of Manhattan, one of the youngest girls in my cabin, Tessa Roseberry, had shivered against me, clasping my hand so tightly that she cut off my circulation. But this was a turning moment for cabin four – a chance to change our reputation – and I was not about to allow us to look weak in this war.<p>

When Percy asked Travis and Connor to check out Olympus, it was like we were all a part of a giant prank that the brothers had come up with. Travis was assigning people places to look, and Connor was giving them all jobs. The two of them are naturals at braking orders. Of course, Travis decided that he and I would be a team, and I had to endure thirty minutes of him blabbering on about the golden mango. It was a prank he and Connor pulled on the Aphrodite cabin. Long story. And definitely not one that I cared to listen to. After all, who would harm a mango by spray painting it gold? That was not a kindness to nature. It was heartless.

Connor joined us, yelling that we had to see what was going on in Manhattan. Travis took one look, and ran with Connor to go get Percy.

The entire city was asleep.

Of course, we hightailed it to the elevators to take us back down to the city. Once we were there, Percy started arranging everything. After a brief scuffle with Connor about looting a candy store, we were all assigned a tunnel or entrance to Manhattan to cover. Demeter's cabin took the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel. After some more complaining from Travis and Connor, and some cheering, we all set off for our various posts.

Percy told us to grow vines or something over the entrance to the tunnel. So that is exactly what I told my cabin mates to do. We really went all out, because I had to prove that Demeter is a valuable power to have on your side in a war.

If you want to imagine what the tunnel looked like, picture a complex spider web that covered the entire entrance. It had vines as thick as a cow's torso, all a deep shade of emerald green. The plants were tightly intertwined. On the walls, ceiling and floor of the side closest to the approaching monsters, we grew poison ivy and thorns. It seemed like a good idea, so we added some all over the wall of vines too. By the end of it, we were all drained of energy, and sitting outside a completely green tunnel.

Some of the younger campers couldn't take the strain and had passed out, like little Tessa. I was glad that they wouldn't have to see the war. They were too young. I told everyone to grab their weapons and prepare themselves. Then I picked up all of the younger kids, one by one, and lay them down behind a tranport truck whose driver had fallen asleep. I told my cabinmates were going to fight to protect the truck as best as they could.

"That's de-vine!" I heard a familiar voice say, and then he burst out laughing. This was just what I needed, a visit from the jokester gorilla man.

"Travis, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be leading another group in a different tunnel! You shouldn't be socializing during a war! What if a bomb goes off and your whole cabin is in trouble?"

"Woah Katie, calm down. You know, you're a lot like my mom. But you don't need to worry! The sun hasn't even set yet. They'll attack tonight," Travis said, holding up his hands. He had a goofy grin plastered on his face. "I've got this."

"I can't believe you."

"I know, sometimes I am a little too awesome to handle." He turned around and picked up my sword, tossing the hilt from hand to hand. "Do you fight with a big blade like this one?"

"You're an idiot. Of course I do."

"Awe, thanks Katie!" I took this as an invitation to punch him in the arm. He yelped in protest.

I glared at him. "Go away, Travis. I don't want you here. My cabin is going to fight with dignity, like a true family. And sadly, you lack in that department." I turned up my nose, trying to act mature, but of course, he wouldn't understand that.

He put his hand on my shoulder. "Look Katie, I'm . . . well, I'm . . . sorry. I just wanted to wish you luck. I brought you some candy."

I gave him another evil stare. "From that candy store that I specifically told you _not_ to pillage?"

He shrugged. "Maybe."

I snorted, disgusted. "I can't believe you would do that." I paused, considering what I'd just said. "Scratch that, I definitely can. You know, you should eat more wheat. It'd be good for you."

"I'm honoured. And no way; it's gross. Maybe we should -" The roar of a hellhound cut him off. We both turned to face the tunnel where the sound had come from. The war had begun.

Travis was _so_ dead. He didn't even have time to get back to his own tunnel, so I groaned as he fought with my team. He's a shoddy swordsman, despite having had Luke for a teacher. Fortunately, the vines held off most of the troops coming our way, so Travis didn't have to do much.

The only time that I let him out of my sight was when two _dracenae _came slithering my way.

The two monsters were hissing as they came over to outnumber me. The first was no problem; I sidestepped and then when it turned, enraged, I sliced it right through the waist. It exploded into dust all over me. But killing one of them seemed to set off the other, and it called for backup. I was suddenly surrounded by a dozen enemy troops.

_Okay,_ I thought, _so here's Demeter's time to shine_. I probably screamed like a little girl, but it was drowned out by the hissing and growling of monsters.

In the back of my mind, I could hear Percy talking from one of our training sessions with him. _If you're surrounded, start by finding a way out, especially if it means vaporising an enemy. You have to get out from a situation where you're the underdog_. I looked around me, and saw that one of the _empousa_ was slightly smaller than the rest. I lunged at her with my sword. As she exploded into dust, I ran through the space she created. All of the monsters turned to look at me. And I began fighting my way through them.

_If your enemy is large, get under it. Usually a distraction is best, because big equals slow._ Remembering this, I started with the hellhounds that were bounding towards me. There were three of them. I ran around, trying to confuse them, but apparently they weren't quite as dumb as they looked. I slashed through one, but then another knocked me to the ground with a swing of a huge paw. Blackness swirled in front of my eyes, and there was a searing pain through my right arm. Good thing I'm left handed. I shook my head to clear it and then got to my feet.

I tackled the hellhound, receiving a few more slashes and cuts in the process, but nothing seemed too major. After I was finished with it, I turned to face the last of the three. He growled and lunged at my hurt arm. _If you're out of options, hide and clear your head while you can._ I ran for the left, diving behind an SUV. The monster jumped on top of it, baring its teeth at me. I got up to fight, but as I was standing up, it pinned me to the ground. My sword clattered to my side, just out of reach. The hellhound gave me a huge gash running from my left shoulder to my right hip, and I yelled out in pain, hoping that I sounded defiant at the same time. But before it could do any worse, it exploded all over me. I choked on the dust for a moment, spitting it out all over the ground next to me. I looked up and frowned.

Connor Stoll was standing there, poised as if he had just stabbed something. I groaned, realizing that he had saved my life. I didn't want to owe him anything. He offered me his hand, which I noticed was bruised and caked in dirt. He had a cut from his chin down the side of his neck, and was limping slightly, but otherwise he looked okay. I stood up and brushed myself off. I grabbed my sword, but as I ran back around the SUV to the battle scene, I noticed that it was all over. The sun was poking out from behind the tunnel, and the army was retreating. I guessed that Travis was right about the battle being at night.

Speak of the devil, Travis was standing in the middle of a gigantic pile of monster dust, holding his arm at the elbow. His legs were covered in scabs and mud, and his forehead had beads of sweat dripping down it. In fact, every single demigod present was cut, bruised or broken in some way. I went to check on the little kids, to find that they were crying. "Oh no, what's wrong?" I asked them with a quiver in my voice, as my eyebrows crunched together. One of the younger boys ran and jumped into my arms, and two others hugged my legs. None seemed able to speak.

"We can't find Tessa," someone said behind me. I turned to face Connor, who apparently had followed me. He developed a sudden interest in his combat boots, unable to meet my gaze.

I noticed something for the first time. "Connor, what are you doing here? You and your brother had your own tunnels!"

He looked up, and I noticed that the mischievous edge to his eyes were gone, and replaced by sadness. "Travis called me on some random person's phone. He said you were in trouble, so I got over here as fast as I could."

Now it was my turn to stare at my boots. But instead of being upset with Connor, I was furious at Travis. I motioned for the kids to let go, and promised them that I'd be back. "Connor, go look for Tessa. Now." I turned and ran towards the boy standing in a pile of dust.

He was grunting in pain as he hopped from one foot to the other. He stopped when I walked over. "Travis, how dare you? How could you take the honour from my cabin by putting the spotlight on yours? We were doing just fine and now you've ruined it and I could have handled the monsters myself and you're being a bad friend and..." I trailed off, because I took one look at his face, and he looked upset.

"Look Katie, I'm sorry, okay? We can't afford to lose any campers, so when you were surrounded, I called Connor and told him to come. Did you know that Clove, from your cabin, is awesome at monster slaying? She did most of it herself. I only took care of the ones coming after you." He smiled at me, and the anger in the pit of my stomach turned to guilt.

"Thank you," I muttered. I walked back to where Connor was still standing with the other campers.

"Any sign of Tessa?" I asked, then bit my lip. She had so much potential; this couldn't be her end.

Connor just nodded and pointed to the other side of the highway. I ran there, pushing people out of my way to get to the poor little girl.

I looked in the window of a blue minivan and saw her, bleeding badly and laying in the backseat. I opened the door and pulled her into my arms. She opened her eyes, her beautiful green eyes, and croaked, "The hellhound. Coming after you. I ran to help you but a snake lady cut me up bad. I ran into the van to hide. Travis got her. I'm sorry." She sighed, and rested her head on my shoulder. I pushed her chocolate coloured hair out of her eyes and kissed her forehead.

As I brought her over to the rest of the campers, Connor's face turned ashen. "Katie, she looks like she's lost a lot of blood. I don't think..." he trailed off. But I knew what he was going to say, and I didn't like it.

I sat down with her on my lap, brushing the dirt out of her hair. "You were so brave, Tessa. So brave. Thank you for trying to help. I'm so proud of you."

"Thank you," she whispered, smiling slightly.

As I cried my eyes out, Travis came over and held my hand. Connor held Tessa's. The rest of the cabin sat around us, with their heads bowed and their eyes closed. And we all stayed there, just like that, even after Tessa stopped breathing.

Connor was the first to stand up. I looked at him, to see that he too had been crying. The rest of my cabin all stood up after him. It was clear that we were all devastated. Demeter's cabin is such a family that one loss could break our hearts in an instant.

I looked back down at the face of the little girl. She was still smiling. Travis stood up, taking her from my arms. I was the last to get to my feet, wiping the tears out of my eyes. The dust from my hands stung, but I didn't care. I imagined that my whole face was red, and my eyes were probably bloodshot and puffy, but yet, it didn't matter to me.

A shroud. We needed a shroud. I raised my hand, and controlled my thoughts to grow one out of vines and roses. It was the perfect shroud for brave little Tessa Roseberry.

I took Tessa back from Travis' arms, and we wrapped her in it. Then, all together, we set off for the demigod camp at the centre of Manhattan.

I knew, from that moment on, that Travis and Connor weren't so bad. The brothers walked on either side of me, each with an arm wrapped around my waist. As we were all walking and crying, not once did I let go of Tessa, and the boys never let go of me, either.


End file.
